Can someone translate my camera's serial number into a date, please? It's 866875. The 127mm Ektar has the serial number EO 1858 which I think dates it 1946. The camera looks newer than that but who knows.

There isn't, it use to be here but the administration bowed to their bosses and removed it. Henry's post may get deleted also. That list is numbers that have been dated on this site and I doubt it has been updated in several years.
Anyway, the poor record that Graflex actually kept shows your s/n to be in the middle of a batch of 5000 Speeds listed mid year 1951._________________The best camera ever made is the one that YOU enjoy using and produces the image quality that satifies YOU.

That's great, thanks. Is it at all possible that a 1951 camera could have been sold new with a 1946 lens? Did that sort of thing happen much? And is there a way of telling if the rangefinder cam is the right one for the lens?

Is it at all possible that a 1951 camera could have been sold new with a 1946 lens?

Doubtful, highly unlikely.

Quote:

And is there a way of telling if the rangefinder cam is the right one for the lens?

1951 cameras had side rangefinders that do not use cams.
The Graflex top rangefinder that does use cams was introduced in 1955.
If your camera has a top rangefinder then some has switched the bed from a newer camera with one from an older camera.

Which rangefinder do you have?_________________The best camera ever made is the one that YOU enjoy using and produces the image quality that satifies YOU.

Thanks again. I've been searching through the forums and noticed that the site owners seem reluctant to just make the dating info available, preferring instead to respond to requests for info. However, since there is obviously a lot of info about dates already in the public domain, I can't see why anyone would want to object if someone just puts it all together in a list.

Well, you'll have to ask the moderator(s) who made the decision to pull the original list off the board. By the time I found out what had happened, the list was already gone, but I found it archived on Google cache and was able to copy it from there; that's the list I posted above. I don't know if "shutterfinger" is still around (I haven't seen any posts by him in a while), or if anybody has been updating the list as more data come in; note that the list was last updated on 2/5/08. My advice to anybody who wants the list is to copy the one above and maintain your own updates (one of these days maybe I'll follow my own advice. )

Henry, someone is now posting as Shutterfinger on Apug.org, mainly on Graphic/Graflex questions. I suspect, can't be sure, that Charles Monday is the person behind the screen name. Our 45PSS (= Charles with no doubt) and Shutterfinger have very similar prose styles.

yea, and there is a copy on southbristolviews.com 's Graflex Exchange and a few other sites around the web that I gave the copies to. Still have the original word documents buried in my files that I created back then. Haven't bothered to update it and don't plan to.
shutterfinger, aka 45pss._________________The best camera ever made is the one that YOU enjoy using and produces the image quality that satifies YOU.